We Have A Problem
by pandacookienom
Summary: Sherlock has a problem. And it comes in the form of a seven year old girl in his flat. Now that he thinks about it, she's not exactly a problem. But something's definitely wrong. Johnlock? Eventually. Parentlock? Um...kind of?
1. Veronica

John's phone buzzed in his pocket.

He smiled apologetically at his patient as he pulled it out.

_We might have a problem -SH_

John sighed.

_Define 'might.' -JW_

_Okay, we do. -SH_

_Have a problem, I mean. -SH_

For a moment John was concerned.

_What kind of problem? -JW_

_I'm at work, can it wait? -JW_

_Get home as soon as possible. -SH_

John turned off his phone and turned to his patient.

"Alright, you were saying?"

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

John walked into the flat, slamming the door behind him.

"Sherlock, I'm home! What was the pro-" John stopped as he saw what the 'problem' was.

Sherlock was sitting on the couch staring at a little black haired girl.

The girl, who looked about 6 or 7, was watching the television, holding a stuffed pink bunny.

John attempted a polite smile at her, but pulled Sherlock aside.

"Who is _that_?" He asked, nodding his head towards the unexpected guest.

"That," Sherlock said, frowning in the area of the television, "is Veronica Albert. She is 7 years old, and..."

Sherlock lowered his voice.

"Her parents have gone missing, possibly siblings as well...we haven't questioned her yet." He said, with barely any emotion.

John's mouth opened, but then he shut it again.

He looked at the little girl.

Then he looked back at Sherlock.

"Two questions: why is she-"

"In our flat? Lestrade didn't want to contact the authorities until we knew where her family was. Next?" Sherlock interrupted.

"Um, does she know who you _are?_" John asked, alarm in his voice.

Sherlock shook his head, paused, nodded, and decided to explain.

"Yes and no. She knows me as 'Mr. Holmes, the nice man who will be taking care of you.' She doesn't know anything about me."

Sherlock's eyebrows flicked up for a moment.

"Oh, and to answer your next question, Molly is visiting family and nobody else could 'handle' a child." He said.

"So they decided _you _could handle a child and...I don't know, Donovan, _couldn't?_" John asked.

Sherlock snickered.

"Lestrade was about to hand her to Donovan, but all Veronica needed was to hear her call me freak. "

"Oh no." John said.

Sherlock smiled.

"And the kid goes 'Mean words are bad, you stupid lady. I don't want the mean, stupid, bad lady to take me. She's ugly, too.' Veronica refused to go with her."

John smiled in amusement, but shook his head.

"What on earth are _we, _of all people, going to do with a child?!"

"I was hoping you would know." Sherlock smiled.

"I know who you are."

John jumped, and turned.

"You do? Who am I?" He asked Veronica, deciding to play along.

"You're John Watson, and he's Sherlock Holmes. I read your blog." She said, pointing to John.

John glanced at Sherlock. This would be quite an adventure.

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Veronica slept on the couch that night.

Every so often, she would wake up and stare at the ceiling and wonder.

Wonder what happened to her family, what she was doing here, who these people really were.

Wonder when could she go home to her parents and brothers.

But she shook all the thoughts out of her head.

'He's a genius', she thought, 'he'll take care of me.'

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

She woke up to John in the kitchen, making eggs and bacon.

"John." Veronica said.

He turned around.

"Where's my family?" She asked.

John shifted. "Um. They've, they've gone missing. We're investigating now, me and Sherlock."

Veronica nodded. "Okay."

.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

She couldn't sleep.

So she turned on the television.

It flickered.

"Hello, Veronica."

Her eyes widened at what she saw on the screen.

"If you tell anyone about what you're about to see, your family dies."


	2. In The Night

Sherlock yawned and came downstairs.

It was still dark, but he was awake.

And bored.

He tried to walk quietly so he wouldn't wake the seven year old, until he saw a shape sitting in the dark.

Sherlock switched on the light and blinked a few times.

Veronica sat on the couch with tears in her eyes, trembling.

"What's wrong? John!" Sherlock yelled up the stairs.

He walked up to the couch.

John ran down the stairs.

"Sherlock, it's only-...what's going on?" John asked, coming up to the consulting detective.

"Veronica, what happened? Why are you crying?" He asked, sitting down next to her.

She turned away from him, pulling her bunny close.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?" Sherlock asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He said I can't say anything or...or..." Her voice broke.

"Or what? Or what, Veronica?"

"I can't tell you! I can't!" She yelled, bursting into tears.

Sherlock glanced at John as they sat awkwardly next to her.

John decided to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Uh, it's alright..."

She sniffed and looked at Sherlock.

"You'll find them, right?" She asked, her eyes widening.

Sherlock stared at her. Then he felt something in his heart. Something he rarely felt.

Then he hugged her.

John stared at Sherlock in amazement.

"Yes. I'll find them, no matter what."

**Okay, so. Short chapter, I know, but I've been busy with You Can't Leave Us, my other Parentlock fic. Please check it out if you're into that!**


	3. Noticeable

Once Veronica was calm and back in bed, Sherlock walked into the kitchen.

"Why did you hug her? You never hug anyone. And you barely even know her!"

"Because...I don't know. Does it matter?" Sherlock asked, rummaging through the fridge.

"...not really, but...never mind." John said, shaking his head.

"I think somebody threatened her."

John, who was halfway up the stairs, stopped and turned back around.

"What? How?"

"I don't know, maybe someone outside showed her something?" Sherlock said, waving his hand dissmissively.

"But that's the wrong question. We should be wondering what the threat was." Sherlock explained, finally pulling out a bottle of juice.

"How do we find out? I mean, she won't tell us." John asked.

"We make sure she's safe, and we don't let anyone know she's here." Sherlock continued.

John shook his head. "I'm going to bed."

"Oh, John?" Sherlock called.

"What?"

"We're out of milk."  
.,.,.,.,.,

"Veronica, I'm going to get some milk. Need anything?"

The seven year old sat up happily.

"Ooh, chocolate! And frozen pizza!"

John nodded. "Sherlock's upstairs playing his violin if you need anything. I'll be back in around 20 minutes."

Veronica grabbed her rabbit as soon as John left and ran up the stairs.

She followed the music and watched Sherlock play.

When he was done, she said "That was really pretty!"

Sherlock spun around, nearly dropping his violin.

"Thank you. Where's John?" He said, recovering quickly.

"He went to get chocolate and pizza. I'm bored. Can we do something?" She said.

"I suppose. What would you like to do?"

.,.,.,.,.,

John unlocked the door, to find Veronica and Sherlock standing on the couch 'sword' fighting ...with spoons.

"Arr, that's my treasure, Captain Clever!"

"Well now it's mine, Vicious Veronica!"

Seeing John come in, Sherlock jumped off the couch.

"Hey! Come back!" Veronica yelled.

"It was upon her insistence." Sherlock assured John, but turned around and whispered,"We'll play later."

John smiled.

"Veronica, come get your chocolate."

"Yay!" She ran up, grabbed the chocolate, and sat down in front of the televison.

"So, did she say anything?" John asked.

"Nope. But I found a camera."

John spun around. "You mean someone's watching us? For how long?!" He asked, almost panicking.

Sherlock raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care, it's not like you have anything to hide?" He said, more as a question then a statement.

"N-no! Why would you think that?" John said defensively, taking sudden interest in the ingredients of the frozen pizza.

"Perhaps the fact that you...never mind."

"Don't make deductions about me!" John said suddenly.

Sherlock shook his head, and walked upstairs.

As soon as Sherlock was out of earshot, Veronica looked up.

"Are you mad at your boyfriend?"

John turned around.

"Did you call him my boyfriend?" He asked, blushing.

"Yeah, are you mad at him?"

"I am...but he's not...I'm not...Why would you think we were a couple?" John sputtered.

Veronica shrugged. "Because you blush around him, and you look at him like Adrian used to look at me."

"I don't-it's noticeable? And, who's Adrian, how did he look at you?"

"He was a boy who lived next door to me. He was in love with me. Adrian used to look at me like I was the prettiest girl ever."

John smiled, amused.

But as he turned away from the girl, an awful realization came upon him.

If a seven year old could notice it, Sherlock-"Oh god."

**So yeah, we get some Johnlock in this chapter! In the next couple chapters, Veronica decides to experiment with her 'flatmates.' :D **


	4. Jungle

The next morning, Veronica sat up.

Sherlock was already at the window with his violin.

"Is your boyfriend mad at you?"

"Boyfriend? Oh, you mean John. He won't be mad for long."

Veronica made sure to remember that Sherlock didn't deny it.

"_He _said you weren't his boyfriend."

"I don't care."

Veronica crossed her arms.

"That's not a nice thing to say. Say you're sorry."

Sherlock ignored the seven year old.

"Fine, then I'll just eat your chocolate."

"Alright, I'm sorry. Stay away from the chocolate, Veronica."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"I wanna be a pirate."

Sherlock smiled.

"Really?"

"Yeah. "

'_If John says they're not dating, and Sherlock says they are, then...I guess I have to find out the truth!' _Veronica thought to herself, smiling at the thought.

"It's boring in this flat." She said, looking out the window, past Sherlock. "How about we make it...unboring?"

Sherlock turned around.

"And by that you mean...?"

Veronica smiled.

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

As soon as John came downstairs, Veronica shoved a piece of paper at him.

"I need you to buy these."

The paper said, in messy handwriting,

**a tiger**

**a lion**

**a hippapotamoose**

**some fish**

**a jiraf**

**a lepord**

**a lizerd**

"Veronica, why do you need a tiger, a lion, a hippopotamus, fish, a leopard, and a lizard?"

She smiled and gestured behind her.

Sherlock was putting long, green blankets up around the room, and there were cardboard tubes with leaves sticking out.

John sighed.

"Sherlock."

"Hmm."

"Why is there a jungle in our living room?"

"Because we were bored."

_**A little more Johnlock. I know, it's short. And Veronica can't spell. But at least she wants to be a pirate. :P**_


	5. A Shot

Despite the jungle, which now had a stuffed leopard, giraffe, hippo, and a few living fish in a tank, Veronica was growing more restless each day.

Sherlock tried desperatley to find her family, but reached a dead end every time.

"John, what do I do? I've never spent this long on a case before. Where COULD THEY BE?!"

John sighed.

"I don't know."

"What do I do?! Every day, she wonders why they're not here, why I can't bring them to her! It's not like they vanished, so WHERE ARE THEY?!" Sherlock exploded suddenly, bringing his fists down onto the table.

"Well, she seems just as happy here, I'm sure she'll be fine for a bit longer..." John trailed off, attempting to comfort Sherlock.

Sherlock froze. "Repeat that."

"She'll be fine for a bit longer, she's happy here...?" John said, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Sherlock snapped his fingers, running into the jungle.

"Veronica!"

The little girl turned.

"Yeah."

"Was your family nice to you?"

She was silent.

"You can tell me." He said, handing her the giraffe.

Veronica took it from him.

"No. They...they were mean." She said quietly.

"How?"

"Mummy called me stupid. My brothers said I was a rat who ruined everthing. And...my daddy..." Her voice broke.

Sherlock placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What?" He asked softly.

"He used to come home late sometimes, with hard bottles in his hands. When I came to say goodnight, he hit Mummy and me."

Sherlock frowned.

"Anything else?"

Veronica hesitated.

"I...a man on the telly said that if I told you, he would kill us...and my family..."

"Veronica, what did he say? You're safe, I promise." As soon as the words left Sherlock's mouth, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"He said-" "JOHN! GET DOWN!"

John turned, startled, but kneeled down.

A bullet broke the window, and flew into the kitchen.

"Sherlock!" John yelled, struggling to see him through the 'jungle.'

"John! Are you all right?" Sherlock called.

"Yes, did you get hurt?" The doctor asked, begging to make his way to Sherlock.

"No, stay there! He might shoot again!"

John heard Veronica start crying.

"Is she okay?"

"Just scared."

"And you?"

"A few cuts from the glass. We need to leave."

"What? Where? Why?" John asked in confusion.

"I'll explain later..." Sherlock trailed off, glancing out of the remains of the window.

"Listen, John. When I count to three, run upstairs. Pack three bags, as quickly as you can. One for me, for you, and for Veronica. If you hear any gunshots, stay upstairs."

John swallowed. "Alright."

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"


End file.
